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#Post#: 64717--------------------------------------------------
Norman Hayes (F.L. Linesman)
By: John Treleven Date: May 27, 2023, 11:19 am
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Bolton News
9th February 2009
by Nick Jackson
Norman Hayes (born 3rd April 1933)
The player who became a referee
The footballing career of Norman Hayes as both player and
referee underlines how much the game has changed. In the modern
era it is unheard of for a referee at the top of the game to
have played the game at all. But when ex-striker Hayes, now aged
75, had finished banging in goals for the likes of Bury and
Burnley reserves, and a variety of non-league clubs, like
Morecambe, Fleetwood, Darwen and Bacup, he was more than happy
to become the man in the middle.
Hayes, who has lived in Over Hulton all his life, might have
been destined for greater things as a footballer, after
impressing as a speedy outside right for various local teams,
including an outing in the Halliwell Rovers side which lifted
the Bolton Hospital Cup following victory over Daubhill Athletic
on a pitch in Lowndes Street Bolton, in 1952.
“I was a Bury player, appearing regularly in the reserves, by
then. The Hospital Cup was played in the evening, and Bury
wouldn’t let me off, so on the day of the final I played in the
afternoon and then in the cup final, which Halliwell Rovers won
2-1.“In four Hospital Cup games, including the final, I scored
12 goals, although I didn’t have a good game in the final.”
Hayes then went to join for Burnley and was playing in their
reserve team against Bolton when he was involved in a tackle
with Wanderers man Bob Matthewson which damaged the cruciate
ligaments in his leg. Whether that injury prevented him from
playing at the highest level of the game, no one will ever know.
In those days, football was a man’s game and Hayes decided to
get on with it.
He plied his trade as a goalscorer at Morecambe before moving to
Fleetwood, during which time he trained at Bolton Wanderers with
the permission of then manager Bill Ridding, and Darwen. He
stopped playing while he was at Bacup Borough at the age of 31,
partly due to his commitment as works manager at Hawker Siddeley
in Farnworth.
“I couldn’t get enough time off to train, I had worked my way up
in the aircraft industry and I had a good career which I don’t
regret one little bit. But as a referee, I did not need to train
as much. Nowadays, you couldn’t do it like I did it then, you’ve
got to start refereeing in your teens.”
Hayes got a good look at the game at its highest level as a
referee. “I was involved in a game in which Stoke City were top
of the league, they hadn’t been beaten, and they were playing
Newcastle. I was the linesman and Newcastle beat them. I
couldn’t do Manchester United, because it was too close to where
I live. But I did matches involving Liverpool, Everton, Wolves
and West Brom.”
His refereeing career was also to bring him back into contact
with ex-player Matthewson, who had also converted into a
referee.
“Three of us went to officiate the UEFA Cup tie between Moscow
Torpedo and Napoli in 1972, when the Soviets were preparing to
host the Olympics in 1980. They knew that I worked in the
aircraft industry and I was detained for quite a while at the
Moscow airport before they would let me in.”
Hayes was 42 when he retired as a referee, but not before he had
successfully completed an F.A. coaching badge. The coaching
certificate was something he put to good use as a volunteer for
seven years at St. Andrew’s C of E School, Over Hulton, where
his grandson, Ben, was a pupil. Meanwhile, he has always had an
extra-curricular interest in motor sport as a photographer and
reporter and is a regular visitor to the Oulton Park circuit in
Cheshire and is a keen follower of the fortunes of racers from
Bolton.
Ten days later he was in the same paper again
19th February 2009
A former Football League referee and non-league player has
claimed there is a lack of interest and effort in primary school
football across Bolton. Norman Hayes, aged 75, who refereed at
the highest level of the game in the 1960s and early 1970s, was
a volunteer coach at St. Andrew’s C of E School, Over Hulton,
until November last year when illness forced him to quit. The
qualified F.A. coach helped train youngsters for seven years at
the school his grandson, Ben, attended.
But Mr. Hayes, who has lived in the Over Hulton area all his
life, said that while St. Andrew’s would fulfil their fixtures,
there would be other schools which could not because matches had
to be surpervised by teachers, who were unable to attend.
“There is a lack of effort being put into school football, in my
experience. Some of the teachers just weren’t bothered, not
interested at all. We played most of our matches, but other
teams would only play one or two out of a dozen because it was
extra-curricular. It really annoys me. That’s how football is
run at school level. It’s not chaos, it’s non-existent, there is
a culture among people working in primary education in Bolton
that leads to a complete disinterest in football. Matches
wouldn’t take place when kids wanted to play, but schools were
not organised to deal with it. It’s scandalous. The saddest
thing really is that there is a lack of leadership and
enthusiasm.”
Headteacher of St. Andrew’s, Mrs. Liz Rogerson, said the school
had a lot of out of class activities that its staff are involved
in, including a choir and newspaper club. She said the school
had been awarded Activemark status by Sport England for 2007 and
2008, and is linked to St. James Secondary School in Farnworth
as part of the School Sports Co-ordinator initiative. She said
“We try to make provision for all our children, from reception
right the way through to Year Six to take part in a variety of
activities, football for infants and juniors, which is often run
by an outside provider, judo for many years, we’ve got fencing
at the moment and we’ve had rugby courses. We take part in
indoor athletics and have done for the last two to three years
and I will be taking the athletics team during half-term. The
children take part in swimming galas and we take them away for
outdoor adventure weekends, so we do an enormous amount.”
A spokeswoman for Bolton Council said football was very much
alive and well in Bolton primary schools and is an integral part
of pupils physical activity. She said “Primary schools have a
much broader range of activities these days. Last year, across
both primary and secondary schools, we saw 90 per cent of all
children participating in at least two hours of P.E. within and
beyond the curriculum, an increase of 11 per cent compared to
two years previously. However, football has always been, and
remains, a core sport, and we recognise the need for a stable
competition framework to encourage participation and progression
in the sport. The council recently appointed a schools
competition manager who is working as part of a Bolton primary
school football development group to develop the primary
football league structure.”
#Post#: 65333--------------------------------------------------
Re: Norman Hayes (F.L. Linesman)
By: stepan Date: June 15, 2023, 12:32 pm
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1/32 UEFA Cup 17-09-1975 Torpedo Moscow - Napoli 4:1
Referee Bob Matthewson (Manchester), linesmen George Flint
(Kirkby-in-Ashfield) and Norman Hayes (Atherton).
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